How to Juggle School and Your Internship

Most students typically complete an internship while they are still attending school. Not only is it just getting accustomed to starting a new job that is 40 hours a week, but it’s now trying to fit in school work, studying and a life outside of starting your career! I would be lying if I said it were easy. It’s downright exhausting, but it is absolutely possible. Here are a few tips that should help you from completely losing your mind and make your transition much smoother.

1. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN!

The only true way to be able to juggle multiple things at once is to plan. Pick whatever method you think works best for you and stick to it.

Here is a list of a few different methods:

Buy a physical planner

Use your phone and set reminders

Use your computer to create an Excel spreadsheet

Buy a calendar

I personally keep a planner with me at all times and I also have a dry erase calendar at home.

Now that you have a method, write down when your biggest assignments for school are due. Then, plan out all the steps you need to complete in order to finish the assignment. Plan out the individual tasks into each day of the week. It is also important to give yourself a cushion. If your project is due on a Friday, make sure everything is ready to go on Thursday, just in case something comes up. When you break down a task into more manageable pieces, it doesn’t seem so daunting and you will find that you will finish things much more efficiently.

2. Take Care of Yourself

You can’t be at your best self if you are running yourself thin. Make sure you schedule you priorities to ensure that you are getting enough sleep. Eating a healthy meal and even going for a short walk is important to keeping your physical and mental health in check. Without these things, there is no way you can be successful. Making time for these activities will help you in so many ways. You’ll have more mental clarity, be more resilient to stress and be generally a lot happier.

3. Schedule a Reward

It can be easy to get caught up in routine and become complacent. In order to prevent this, schedule something fun for a few weeks out as a reward for all of your hard work. Maybe the end of the semester is coming up, plan a weekend away or a trip to the spa in celebration of the end of another semester. Or, schedule a lazy day where you don’t have to go anywhere and just watch some movies. When you have something to look forward to, it gives you more motivation to get your school work done and make the days more enjoyable at your internship.

I hope you have enjoyed these posts for the last week and feel more prepared for your internship. If you have any tips on how you juggle school and work, leave a comment below and let us know!

Thanks for all the love and support this week. You will never know how much it means. I will talk to you all soon in my next blog post!